Skilled bodybuilders typically meticulously plan their pre-contest coaching routine throughout the low season. They make use of methods reminiscent of break up system exercises, fastidiously calibrated units and reps, and a various array of focused workout routines to maximise muscle progress and power. Their main goal throughout this section is to put the groundwork for peaking when it comes to lifting heavier weights and growing exercise depth as they strategy contest time. Sometimes, within the remaining 12 weeks main as much as a contest, they implement a specialised contest food plan. This food plan focuses on shedding physique fats whereas aiming for a lean, outlined, and ripped physique that showcases their hard-earned muscle mass.
The truth that in the present day’s champions look so good is a testomony to how efficient these methods might be. Nevertheless, by way of years of remark, I’ve discerned an space inside pre-contest coaching that always bears room for enchancment. Particularly, this considerations the apply of abstaining from heavy weight within the week main as much as the precise contest. Whereas this methodology is often employed, its potential affect on sustaining peak power and muscle activation throughout the competitors is a side worthy of deeper consideration.
Bodybuilders should practice heavy to construct massive muscle tissues. How heavy depends upon issues like genetics, particular person power, and the physique half being labored. However the normal strategy is for bodybuilders to go so much lighter the week or so earlier than competing. For instance, no extra heavy reps beginning Tuesday or Wednesday earlier than a Saturday occasion. Typically, beginning even earlier. The issue is a muscle made massive and laborious by intense coaching will begin to get smaller and softer when it’s not topic to that form of resistance. Every week and even just some days may not end in a major distinction. Nonetheless, there may very well be some minimal diploma of atrophy current.
Because the competitors approaches, it’s inevitable to expertise systemic fatigue—a cumulative results of intense coaching and the demanding pre-contest food plan. This twin onslaught typically interprets to decreased power and diminished endurance, making a situation the place your bodily capabilities may not match your typical peak efficiency. The definition of “heavy” when it comes to lifting weights shifts inside this context; what as soon as constituted a manageable load may now pose a major problem.
The exercises that propelled you to the competitors, which had been efficient and essential in your preparation section, may show extreme or overly taxing within the days main as much as the occasion. This disparity between your accustomed coaching routine and your current situation elevates the chance of sustaining accidents. Your physique, fatigued and doubtlessly weakened by the stringent pre-contest coaching, turns into extra vulnerable to strains and accidents beneath the pressure of high-intensity exercises. Therefore, an important adjustment in exercise depth turns into crucial to mitigate the elevated vulnerability to accidents earlier than the competitors.
However to greatest hold your muscle tissues massive, full, and laborious, my suggestion is a compromise: Preserve doing comparatively heavy reps, however fewer of them. Simply do a restricted variety of heavy bench presses or squats, or different two-joint, “energy” actions, however not many units, and focus on the right type to keep away from any likelihood of injuring your self. Doing just some heavy reps “reminds” the muscle as to what it took to stimulate its growth and retains it from dissolving throughout that final quick interval earlier than the Saturday competitors.
As the height of competitors looms, the fragile steadiness between preserving muscle mass and avoiding fatigue-related setbacks turns into paramount. Whereas conventional knowledge suggests a cessation of heavy lifting within the remaining week, another strategy emerges as a strategic compromise. It includes sustaining a reference to heavy weights however with calculated restraint. Limiting heavy, compound actions to a couple important units, making certain impeccable type, serves as a reminder to the muscle tissues of their progress stimuli with out inviting undue pressure or fatigue.
This compromise safeguards towards potential muscle softening or measurement discount throughout the essential pre-competition section. Complementing these temporary heavy units with lighter, sculpting workout routines and rigorous posing retains the coveted muscular definition with out sacrificing hard-earned positive factors. Placing this steadiness permits for muscle preservation whereas mitigating damage danger, thereby optimizing the physique for that pivotal Saturday showcase.
